CAPTAINS REPORT 2011-2012

As I record the completion of my last term as Captain of Boats, I look back at the past year with mixed feelings, though for the most part it has been a satisfying experience. This year has been a combination of enjoyment, rewards and tribulations. I have endeavoured to discharge my duties with fullest commitment and I must record my gratitude to all those who cooperated and contributed to ease my burden. The most rewarding of course were the achievements by CRC crews at regattas. The most noteworthy performances of the year were the comprehensive win at the 74th Annual Madras Colombo Regatta and regaining the Deepam Trophy in Colombo and winning the Macklin Sculls and Phadnis Trophy for the second consecutive year at ARAE in Kolkata. In addition, the CRC Ladies crews have shown a vast improvement and performed extremely well, especially at the National Rowing Championships. This is mainly due to sheer determination and hard work put in throughout the year by the girls. It is a very good sign for future of CRC ladies rowing. Sajeev De Silva and ShehanMuthugala, senior oarsmen and junior members of CRC were selected to represent Sri Lanka in the Mens Double Sculls event at the 14th Asian Rowing Championships in Korea in October 2011. It was a great achievement by the two young oarsmen. The junior squad is in regular training under the watchful eyes of Junior Coach Mr. Baasim Hassan and Vice Captain Maheel Gamage. We hope they will be able to represent CRC at regattas such as ARAE and Madras Colombo in the coming year. During the period of review, the CRC has conducted 05 regattas on the waters of the Beira Lake and have provided the infrastructure and technical support for the conduct of 04 other regattas at CRC totalling 09 regattas during this nine month period. The CRC also participated in one regatta overseas, and/or assisted in the conduct of 03 other regattas held away during this period. Some new events were introduced at club regattas which became very popular among rowers.

REGATTAS HELD AT CRC AND REGATTAS CRC CREWS PARTICIPATED IN DURING THE PERIOD JUNE 2011 TO FEBRUARY 2011

01	RANFER SPRINTS
	The first regatta for the new rowing year was 'Ranfer Sprints' the 300M sprint relay, one of the most exciting regattas in our Rowing Calendar. This was held on the 19th of June for the 23rd consecutive year. The Chief Guest was Mrs. Yaso Sirimanne, Senior Lady Rowing member of CRC with Mr. Nirmala Ranasinghe, the initiator and sponsor of the event and another senior rowing member, as Guest of Honour. This year there was participation by 10 crews, comprising of six men's and four women's crews making it extremely competitive and exciting for competitors and spectators alike. Royal College was the winner in the men's category and Ladies College was the winner in the women's category.
	MEN
	WINNER-Royal College POINTS Chirath Karunanayake 10.5 Ajmal Sideek   Jehan Samarasekera   Sanjive Jayasuriya   Dhanushka Perera   Sahan Warnasuriya   Arith Cooray   Ishan Perera		RUNNER UP- CRC POINTS Dineshka Aluwihare 4.5 Dhanushka Jayanetti   Sajeev De Silva   Peter Christie   Pradeep Maddumabandara   Radhika Weerasekara   Lakkitha Liyanage   Akila Keerthiratne
	WOMEN
	WINNER-Ladies College POINTS Sarani Jayawardene 15 Yanithra Hallock   Amani Tissera   Ashaniwelikala   Dharini Samarasinghe   Anishka Gomesz   Anisha Gunasekera   Shiloh Sumanthiran		RUNNER UP- CRC POINTS Mariam Omar 0 Amashi De Mel   Sajeev De Silva   Anisha Nanayakkara   Maneka David   Ashanti Sumanapala   Jinethri Gunasena   Rushika Gunaratne
	MIXED FOURS
	WINNER Ruan Abhayaratne Hiruni Mendis Swarnamali Wijesinghe Varuna de Silva Pasan Ranaweera		RUNNER UP Subashini Kularatne Reshane Fernando John De Niese Vinuri Wickramasekera Nathira Wijemanne

02	ANNUAL INTER UNIVERSITY REGATTA
	The annual inter university regatta between University of Colombo and University of Moratuwa was held in the 25th of June. University of Colombo won convincingly.

03	MADRAS COLOMBO REGATTA
	This year the 74th Annual Madras Colombo Regatta was held on 23rd July at CRC. It was a brilliant performance by our men's crew who won all events except the B Fours to regain the coveted Deepam trophy with 42 points to 08. Unfortunately, the ladies could not repeat their excellent performance last year where they won the ladies' overall trophy. This time the MBC ladies won all the events. But on a positive note, our ladies crews clocked some of the best timings ever at the races. Let's hope this is a starting point for greater things to come. Results of 74th Annual Madras Colombo Regatta: All races were rowed over a distance of 1000 yards
	MEN
	EVENT   TIME (MIN:SEC) A Single Sculls Sanjeev de Silva (CRC) beat Vishal Sudhakar (MBC) 3:52 B Single Sculls Chirath Karunanayake (CRC) beat Vinay Venketramna (MBC) 3:59 A Double Sculls Shehan Muthugala and Sajeev de Silva (CRC) beat Vishal Sudhakar and Sunil Siddharth (MBC) 3:23 B Double Sculls Suwin Karunaratne and Danushka Jayanetti (CRC) beat Anirudh Chandar and Iman Diwan (MBC) 3.29 A Pair Dineshka Aluwiharw and Pradeep Maddumabandara (CRC) beat Kushal Adia and Ajay Subramaniam (MBC) 3.43 B Pair Radhika Werasekera and Lakkitha Liyanage (CRC beat Rakesh Mohanrangan and Kailash Sithartha (MBC) 3.45 B Fours Karan Rao, Sharan Sanjaya, SIddarth Sumi, Rohith Maradappa and Sanjeev Anirudh (MBC) beat Yohan Wijeratne, Sajeeve de Silva, Shehan Muthugala, Sithija Gamage and Peter Christy (CRC) 3.22 A Fours Chamal Jayanetti, Zydney Fazal, Shelan de Livera, Sajin de Livera, Kemil Peter (CRC) beat Vishal Sudhakar, Inan Diwan, Chandramouli, Siddharth Yadav, A Nirudh Sanjeeve (MBC) 3.22 Masters Fours John de Niese, Prasantha de Silva, Lushantha de Silva, Varuna de Silva and Sharen Kannangara (CR) beat Balaji Maradappa, Deka Rao, Tharunika Prathap, Shiram Siwram and Kushal Adhia (MBC)
	LADIES
	EVENT   TIME (MIN:SEC) Single Sculls Fazila Hussen (MBC) beat Swarnamali WIjesinghe (CRC) 4:17 Double Sculls Iha Diwan and Tharunika Prathap (MBC) beat Anukshi Sumanapala and Ashanthi Sumanapala (CRC) 4:05 Pairs Fazila Hussen and Shuthi Kamath (MBC) beat Amani Tissera and Uanithtra Hallock (CRC) 4.01 Fours Sankavi, Addithi, ihaDiwan, Shruthi Kamath and Anirudh (MBC) beat SUbashini Kualratne, Janithri Marapana, Swarnamali Wijesinghe, Vinuri Wickramasekara and Natheera Wijemanne (CRC) 3.48

04	INTER MONSOON REGATTA
	On 27th August we had the Inter Monsoon Regatta where some of the important trophy events were held. Mr. Lloyd Sirimanne, past Captain of CRC was the chief guest. This year, for the first time, the senior ladies events were rowed over a distanceof one mile. Previously it was only the mens senior events that were rowed over a mile. It was great to see the Ladies taking up the challenge effortlessly. Winners of Inter Monsoon Regatta 2011:
	PRESIDENTS TROPHY ( Ladies Senior Sculls-1 mile)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Samaakhya Gajanayaka 7.31
	CYRAINE CUP ( Ladies Senior Pairs-1 mile)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Amani Tissera (Bow) 7.32 Yanithtra Hallock (Stroke)
	LADIES PLATE ( Ladies Senior coxed fours-1 mile)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Amani Tissera (Bow) 7.08 Yanithtra Hallock (Stroke)   Amani Tissera (3)   Shiyanka De Zylva (Stroke)   Amaya Jayasooriya (Cox)
	LADIES JUNIOR FOURS (U16-1000m)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Tarea Karunaratne (Bow) 4.24 Isabella Sansoni (2)   Haiqa Mohamed (3)   Anoushka Tissera (Stroke)   Shiloh Sumanthiran (Cox)
	MENS JUNIOR FOURS (U16-1000m)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Ramith Nanayakkara (Bow) 3.50 Ming Hua Chang (2)   Anuradha Nadaraja (3)   Sandesh Barthlett (Stroke)   Amith Pieris (Cox)
	V.A. JULIUS PAIRS (Mens Senior Pairs-1 mile)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Shehan Muthugala (Bow) 6.18 Sajeev De Silva (Stroke)
	CENTENARY OARS (Mens open-1000m)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Ashan Pitiarachi (Bow) 3.45 Nilusha De Alwis (2)   Manilka Gunaratna (3)   Tharaka Kulathunga (Stroke)   Ravin Karunaratna (Cox)
	HERMAN SIRIMANNE TROPHY SINGLE SCULLS (1 mile)
	TIME (MIN:SEC) Sajeev De Silva 6.39

05	BOLGODA REGATTA
	On the 03rd and 04th of September, the Bolgoda Regatta which is organised by the Moratuwa University Rowing Club was held in Bolgoda. CRC won the mens open category thanks to an outstanding performance by Sajeev De Silva and ShehanMuthugala who won all their events. In the ladies category, OshaniKulatunga and Nerusha De Zilva won the Bronze Medal in the pairs. It is noteworthy to mention the wonderful spirit of sportsmanship displayed by Oshani and Nerusha, who won a special award for their action. We are proud of both them, as we firmly believe in the true spirit of sportsmanship rather than winning at any cost.

06	27TH NATIONAL ROWING CHAMPIONSHIPS
	The 27th National Rowing Championships was held on Bolgoda Lake from 15th to 17th September 2011. In keeping with international standards all races were conducted over a distance of 2000 m on a multilane course. CRC fielded crews in all the categories in order to give exposure to all our senior and junior rowers. Our Senior Mens and Ladies crews rose to the occasion performing superbly. In the Mens open Category CRC became runners up to Sri Lanka Air Force with two Golds and one Bronze Medal. Sajeev De Silva won two Gold Medals-The Mens Open Single Sculls, and partnering ShehanMuthugala, won the Mens Open Double Sculls. ShehanMuthugala also won a Bronze Medal in the Mens Open Single Sculls. The revelation for CRC was the ladies crew, especially Scullers, who performed brilliantly. Fifteen year oldSamaakhyaGajanayake won the Gold Medal in the Women's Open Single Sculls to become National Sculling Champion for 2011. She also won the Gold in the Girls under 16 Single Sculls and Bronze in the School Girl Sculls. In the Women's Under 19 category, DeshikaHerath won the Gold Medal in the Single Sculls. AyudhyaGajanayake won the Silver Medal in the Women's over 19 Single Sculls while Nerusha De Silva and OshaniKulatunge won the Bronze Medal in the Women's Open Pairs. It was really heartening to see CRC Ladies performing exceptionally well after a long time. CRC winners at the National Rowing Championships 2011
	GENDER CATEGORY EVENT PLACING INST. CODE NAME TIME MEN OPEN Open 1X 1 CRC Sajeev de Silva 08:32   3 CRC ShehanMuthugala 08.47 Open 2X 1 CRC Sajeev de Silva 08:09       ShehanMuthugala 08:09 WOMEN OPEN Open 1X 1 CRC SamaakhyaGajanayake 10:22 Open 2- 3   Nerusha de Silva 12:04       OshaniKulatunga 12:04   OVER 19 Over 19 1X 2 CRC Ayudhya Gajanayake 11:26 UNDER 19 Under 19 1X 1 CRC Deshika Herath 11:04 UNDER 16 Under 16 1X 1 CRC Samaakhya Gajanayake 10:23 School Girl School Girl 1X 3 CRC Samaakhya Gajanayake 10:50

07	LADIES COLLEGE VSMUSAEUS COLLEGE REGATTA
	The 08th Annual Ladies College vsMusaeus College Regatta was held on 14th October. Ladies College crew won the regatta comfortably with 40 points to 12. This was a memorable regatta not only for the rowers, but for everyone present, as they witnessed some fantastic competition where new records were set in all events except in the A fours where the winners were just one second behind the existing record.

08	ANANDA COLLEGE VS ASIAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL REGATTA
	The 02nd Annual Ananda College vs Asian International School Regatta was held on the 16th. AIS sprang a few surprises on the Anandians who were fresh from an outstanding performance at the National Rowing Championships where they emerged champions in the men's Under 19 category. Although Ananda College won the overall Trophy with 24 points to 16, AIS managed to secure the B Fours and B Pairs events. But this type of surprises are the ones that make it that much more exciting and makes the sport progress. It is also great to see Ananda College oarsmen performing exceptionally well, being the latest addition to the rowing fraternity.

09	ROYAL THOMIAN REGATTA
	The most looked forward to Regatta as far as inter school regattas are concerned, the 38th Annual Royal Thomian Regatta, or the "Battle of the Blues" was held on 22nd October. The large crowd present witnessed some excellent competition by the young oarsmen. In most events, like at the LC vs MC Regatta, existing records were shattered which indicate the standard of rowing has improved tremendously. Acquiring latest top quality equipment by teams has also been a major contributing factor to improved performances by crews. The highlight of the day was the Senior Fours or the Boat Race, where Royal College beat STC in a record time of 2 minutes 55 seconds. This is the first time that a crew has broken the 3 minute barrier in a 1000 yard race on Beira Lake. Royal won the regatta with 48 points to 04.

10	CONCLUDING REGATTA
	The last regatta for the year, the Concluding Regatta, was held on the 17th, 18th and 19th of November 2011. Most of the prestigious senior club events were worked off at this regatta. The Chief Guest at the finals was Mr. LakshmanSirimanne, son of legendary Colvin Sirimanne, the first Sri Lankan President of CRC and Mrs. Sirimanne. In addition to the main senior trophy events, we had mixed fours and probably for the first time, mixed double sculls events and they were keenly contested with the most number of entries. There were six mixed fours crews and ten Mixed double sculls crews! It was wonderful to see such keen participation from the young members. Not only was there fine contest on water, but these young institutional members, boys and girls, who rarely row together as crew, got an opportunity to do so as they had days of training prior to the three days of racing. We hope to continue these events in future regattas as they seem to be very popular among our young rowers. Winners of the Concluding Regatta
	TIME (MIN:SEC) 01 MENS OPEN FOURS 1000M Ashan Pitiarachchi 3.30 Nilusha De Alwis Manilka Gunaratne Tharkana Kulatunga Ravin Karunaratne 02 LADIES OPEN FOURS 1000M Anishka Gomesz 4.10 Yanithtra Hallock Amani Tissera Shiyanka De Zylva Amaya Jayasuriya 03 MIXED FOURS 1000M Sajeev De Silva 3.47 Zydney Fazal Ishika De Silva Nerusha De Silva Ravin Karunaratne 04 HARRY CREASY TROPHY 1 MILE MENS SENIOR FOURS Ashan Pitiarachchi 5.58 Sajeev De Silva Suwin Karunaratne Pradeep Maddumabandara Pasan Ranaweera 05 COLVIN SIRIMANNE TROPHY 1 MILE MENS SENIOR DOUBLE SCULLS Ashan Pitiarachchi 5.54 Sajeev De Silva Suwin Karunaratne Pradeep Maddumabandara Pasan Ranaweera 06 LADIES OPEN DOUBLE SCULLS 1000M Sajeev De Silva 4.06 Amaya Jayasuriya 07 MIXED DOUBLE SCULLS 1000M Swarnamali Wijesinghe 3.47 Zydney Fazal

11	AMATEUR ROWING ASSOCIATION OF THE EAST REGATTA AT CALCUTTA ROWING CLUB, KOLKATA
	The first regatta that the CRC crew participated in 2012 was the ARAE at Calcutta Rowing Club in Kolkata India from the 04th to 07th January. The CRC mens crew performed very well to win the Macklin Sculls and the Phadnis Trophy for the Mens Double Sculls. Both these events were won for the second consecutive year by the same oarsmen representing CRC, namely Sajeev De Silva in the Single Sculls and Sajeev De Silva and ShehanMuthugala in the Double Sculls. CRC was placed Third overall behind Lake Club and Madras Boat Club. There were 12 teams from India, Pakistan, Philippines, UK and Sri Lanka. The CRC ladies crew, all of whom represented CRC for the first time in an ARAE, could not win any events but it was a good opportunity for them to represent the club and gain the much needed exposure for the future. Hope they will do so in the coming years.

12	CARLTON REGATTA-TISSAMAHARAMA
	CRC Mens and Ladies participated in the annual Carlton Regatta held in Tissamaharama on 28th January. The mens crew won the Championships beating Sri Lanka Navy in the finals. The winning CRC mens crew:
	1X- Shehan Muthugala 2X- Dhanushka Jayanetti   Suwin Karunaratne 4+- Pradeep Maddumabandara   Chamal Jayanetti   Manilka Gunaratne   Tharkana Kulatunga   Pasan Ranaweera

13	AMATEUR ROWING ASSOCIATION OF THE EAST REGATTA AT CALCUTTA ROWING CLUB, KOLKATA
	The first regatta that the CRC crew participated in 2012 was the ARAE at Calcutta Rowing Club in Kolkata India from the 04th to 07th January. The CRC mens crew performed very well to win the Macklin Sculls and the Phadnis Trophy for the Mens Double Sculls. Both these events were won for the second consecutive year by the same oarsmen representing CRC, namely Sajeev De Silva in the Single Sculls and Sajeev De Silva and ShehanMuthugala in the Double Sculls. CRC was placed Third overall behind Lake Club and Madras Boat Club. There were 12 teams from India, Pakistan, Philippines, UK and Sri Lanka. The CRC ladies crew, all of whom represented CRC for the first time in an ARAE, could not win any events but it was a good opportunity for them to represent the club and gain the much needed exposure for the future. Hope they will do so in the coming years.

FLEET OF BOATS

Acquiring new equipment has been one of the major goals in the last two years but unfortunately we have not been able to achieve this. I hope this would be fulfilled in the near future by the new Committee. The current fleet of boats housed and owned by the club total 10 together with 42 sweep and sculling blades. In addition to this, the club also houses 60 boats and around 200 oars which are owned by the institutional members.The lists of equipment owned by the club are as follows:

COXED FOUR 4+ F 15 DEVA HENRY COXED FOUR 4+ F 14 CHULA SAMARASINGHE COXED FOUR 4+ BASIL DRAKEFORD II COXED FOUR 4+ GORDON ARMSTRONG II COXED PAIR 2+ V I COXLESS PAIR OR DOUBLE SCULL 2-/2X P 11 AJITH GUNAWARDENE COXLESS PAIR OR DOUBLE SCULL 2-/2X P 12 ROHAN FERNANDO SCULL 1X ANTHONORARY ELWORTHY SCULL 1X ALAVI MOHAMED SCULL 1X

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Mr. Chevantha Sirimanne for coaching the CRC Crew to yet another great victory and who 'retired' after six long and very successful years to take up the job as Head Coach of Sri Lanka Navy. Mr. Hiran Doranegama, the evergreen official at all regattas, took over from Chevy and coached the crew for ARAE. Hiran deserves a big thank you for all his valuable time and effort. Our Junior Coach Mr. Baasim Hassan did a tremendous job keeping the junior squad going and always helping and assisting in conducting regattas. Mr. Lloyd Sirimanne, MrChevantha Sirimanne, Mr.Asiri Abhayaratne, Mr. Udesh Hettiarachchi, Mr. Reshane Fernando and Mr. Ahamed Aslam have been extremely supportive in sharing of equipment at regattas and at training. Thank you very much to all of them. I am also grateful to the ARASL who have permitted CRC senior crews the use of ARASL equipment whenever the need arose and for allowing us to use them at regattas. To Mr. Dinesh De Zoysa, a big thank you for the generous contributions and most of all for being there whenever needed to advise and help in whatever situation throughout the year. And to his indefatigable AEC crew. A special thank you to Vice Captain Maheel Gamage who has been a great Vice Captain, who has always supported and helped me one hundred percent, making it much easier for me to perform my duties as Captain. He has been sharing the burden in carrying out day-to-day operations in addition to looking after the junior crew with BaasimHassan and also in conducting regattas. I also wish to express my gratitude to the President Mr. John De Niese and the Committee. A big thank you to Saravana, Pieris and Kalidasan for the tireless job in maintaining and constantly repairing the ever expanding fleet of boats. Finally, To everyone who has contributed and helped in conducting regattas, during training and in numerous ways making my term as captain in the past two years enjoyable and successful and helping CRC rowing reach greater heights. Yours in Rowing, Varuna de Silva Captain of Boats